It isn’t you, it’s me.

Because the times are (probably) necessitating it:

I will frequently go on about things that I’ve talked about in real life here on the blog. Some of those things may have been sparked by a conversation I had with other people, or an action someone else took.

I frequently take artistic license when talking about real life, usually to make an example more clear.

I frequently obfuscate real-life details, even if I report an event completely accurately.

If I’m reacting to a blog post, tweet, public seminar – anything that’s a broadcast medium – I will usually cite the person I’m talking about if I can and if it’s relevant.

If it was prompted by a non-broadcast or limited broadcast medium – a private conversation, e-mail, anything on Facebook, forum post behind a password – then I will obfuscate the individual(s) in question.

If I didn’t explicitly “out” you as the person I was talking to, there’s one of three reasons: 1) I didn’t want to for my own reasons. 2) I didn’t ask you about it beforehand. 3) I wasn’t talking about you, or just about you. The last is the most common, by far.

If you choose to “out” yourself, please remember #3 above and realize how you might look silly.

If you think I’m talking about you and I misunderstood your point, please remember #3 above and ask me. For example, I could say “a female writer I know who I spoke to about eBooks” and easily refer to fifty people or more.

What questions do you have about this policy? Does it make sense to you?